Pilot's Prayer Heard Before Jet Crash

Jeff Gregory, a 55-year-old pilot from the Philadelphia suburbs, was the captain of a Learjet 60 that crashed in Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, killing all nine people aboard.

The flight originated in Austin, Texas, and was heading to the Bahamas. The aircraft encountered severe weather and impacted the ground in Greenacres, approximately seven miles southwest of West Palm Beach. A federal investigator stated on Monday that parts of the jet likely began detaching before the crash. Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras, the 20-year-old co-pilot, reported to air traffic control that ice was accumulating on the plane and that severe turbulence had shifted the aircraft more than 700 feet vertically. She screamed, “We’re going to die!”, shortly before the jet struck the earth and burst into flames.

Gregory had held air carrier transport pilot and flight instructor certificates, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. He resided in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. He previously worked for a charter company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In 2016 and 2017, he was employed by East Coast Jets, Inc. April Honnen, the company’s director of charter sales, said the organization was deeply saddened by his death and that its prayers were with his family and the co-pilot.

Thomas Noetzel, director of operations at Upper Jets, the company that operated the flight, launched an online fundraiser to support Gregory’s wife and children. Noetzel described Gregory as a close personal friend and wrote that knowing him made him a better person. Walter Noetzel, Thomas’s father, posted on Facebook that Gregory was a dedicated, aware, and deeply faithful man with a passion for flying and a great love for the Lord. He added that Gregory’s journey on Earth had ended, but he believed Gregory was now flying among the angels in the presence of the Lord.

Audio from the co-pilot’s final radio transmissions included the sound of a man reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Friends believe the voice belonged to Gregory, a devout Christian. The impact of the crash created a crater and scattered debris over a wide area. Images taken just before impact appeared to show the horizontal stabilizer missing from the tail. Approximately 600 nearby residents remain displaced, though only one person on the ground was reported injured.

Among the victims were technology entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp, and their two young children, according to family members. Thiago Corteleti, the co-pilot’s stepfather, told the New York Post that she texted her boyfriend about 10 minutes before the crash, writing, “There is turbulence, there is ice.”

Tom Chapman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said on Monday that weather will be a key focus of the investigation. A preliminary report describing the events is expected in about one month, though determining the cause of the accident will likely take more than a year.